A Culture of Escape

Overall, Japanese society is uniform and homogenous, one that tends to repress outliers and promote hard work. This combined with their intensely polite and reserved social persona breeds the necessity for outlets to relieve mental stress. Although these releases tend to be extreme, they are so pervasive that they have become socially acceptable. This includes chain-smoking, heavy drinking and a large appetite for gambling, anime, and sexual fetishism. Pachinko is one such diversion, a form of gambling that heavily contrasts the Japanese personality - imagine a mixture of slots and video games, and then add in blaring sound effects and flashing lights capable of causing 2nd degree burns on your retinas.